Twenty per cent more people are flying between Perth and Newman but passenger numbers on flights between Perth and the towns of Karratha, Port Hedland, Kalgoorlie, Paraburdoo, Geraldton, and Learmonth have dropped off.
The latest figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics show Karratha is the eighth busiest regional airport in Australia, while Port Hedland is ranked 11th.
In the year ending December 2013 BITRE found passengers catching flights in and out of Karratha fell 5.8 per cent, Port Hedland fell 9.2 per cent, Kalgoorlie fell 9.4 per cent, Paraburdoo fell 22.9 per cent and Learmonth fell 3.8 per cent.
Paraburdoo’s drop in passenger traffic marked the strongest fall across Australia.
BITRE said more than one third of all charter flights in Australia either left from or arrived at Perth Airport.
The number of passengers taking charter flights in to or out of Perth has increased 16 per cent, on par with a national increase.
Charter services company Adagold Aviation predicted this figure would continue to rise another 11.7 per cent.
Melbourne to Perth is now the fifth busiest commercial route, after increasing 3.7 per cent last calendar year.
Perth to Sydney is the seventh busiest commercial route, but this fell 0.6 per cent compared to last calendar year.
8.9 million passengers flew into or out of Perth last calendar year, down 0.2 per cent compared to the previous period.
This represented 7.8 per cent of total domestic passenger movements in 2013.
